


Joseph Nicholas Minyard

by Kamria



Category: All For The Game, Andreil - Fandom, the foxhole court
Genre: Brothers, Domestic Fluff, Family, Fluff, Gen, aaron and katelyn have a baby, aftg, life after the foxhole court, the foxhole court - Freeform, twinyards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 05:06:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14969732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kamria/pseuds/Kamria
Summary: Aaron and Katelyn have a baby, Nicky has a meltdown and Andrew isn't mad.





	Joseph Nicholas Minyard

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is for [playmaker](https://archiveofourown.org/users/playmaker/pseuds/playmaker), who kindly let me run wild with his hc, thank you!
>
>> _what if aaron and katelyn have a son & they name him joseph nicholas minyard but aaron being aaron he doesnt tell nicky or andrew the name until they visit katelyn in the hospital. when then find out ofc nicky cries and andrew and aaron probably share one of those Meaningful Looks until andrew calls aaron stupid and takes the baby from katelyn n just. stares at this Tiny Human w the softest god damn look on his face_  
> 
> 
> I live for twinyard moments so I hope you all enjoy! 

 

Aaron’s making his way through his second cup of coffee in the staff room when he gets the call. Or more specifically the static voice of the PA system. 

_‘Dr Minyard to front reception, there’s an urgent call for you, Dr Minyard to front reception.’_

It’s pure luck that all his surgeries were scheduled for that afternoon, a rare quiet morning. It’s high time he earned a free pass. Aaron’s missed out on a lot of things in his life; a childhood, a brother, a proper family. He’s not missing out on the birth of his first child. He makes eyes with his colleague across the table and is momentarily frozen in place. This is it right? It has to be. They made plans for this, what if’s for each situation, which hospital to go to (Katelyn’s of course), would Aaron be working, who they wanted there etc. etc. They planned for this but for a single moment all that goes terrifyingly straight out the window.

“Well what are you waiting for!?” Todd tells him. “Go, go!” 

The drive there is hectic and frustrating. He curses continuously and is pretty sure he commits a fair few traffic violations that he couldn’t care less about. He makes a questionable park outside the hospital and has to double back to the car for the overnight bag he’s had packed for months. He rushes for the massive glass front doors and calls up old fox footwork to dodge around patrons milling in the foyer. Aaron bulls his way to the front desk, politeness be damned. 

“My wife Katelyn Minyard she went into labour where is she?” he breathes out all at once to the young receptionist. 

“Of course sir, one moment please.” She says pleasantly and proceeds to tap away on her computer at the slowest speed known to man. Aaron squashes the intense urge to strangle her. 

“Ah yes, she checked in thirty minutes ago. She’s in room 34B on Level 4, if you head-”

Aaron’s already turning to race down the hall; he knows hospitals well enough by now to find his own way. The elevator takes too long and he considers the merits of taking the four flights of stairs. He regrets his choice immensely when the doors open on an elderly woman using a push chair at level 3. Room 34B is surprisingly unhurried and filled with a lot less doctors and nurses than Aaron thinks there should be for someone giving birth. He wants to demand where the doctors are until he sees his wife sitting up in bed with a single nurse taping something to her arm. 

“Aaron, hi!” she says brightly to him. Aaron's confused, dropping the bag off his shoulder and starting across the room for Katelyn’s outstretched hand. He did get the right call didn’t he? The nurse looks up as he arrives at her side and laughs at whatever’s on his face. She looks to be about ninety-three with steel grey hair and eyes to match; her voice strangely doesn’t suit the appearance at all. 

“Don’t worry Dad, you haven’t missed anything. Labour is a lengthy process, there’s plenty of time” 

“How are you? Do you need anything?” Aaron says to Katelyn instead. 

“I’m fine, really” she says when Aaron frowns. “Mum and I were out having breakfast downtown, she drove me here”

“Where are your parents now?” 

“Somewhere in the building calling the entire family” 

Aaron rolls his eyes and Katelyn grins up at him. He presses a kiss to the top of her head and then decides to stay there; she leans into him and wraps the arm that’s not being gripped by Aaron around his neck. The nurse leaves with a quiet promise to come back in abit and call if they need anything. Aaron just nods against his wife’s familiar lavender smelling hair and closes his eyes. This is all so terrifying and exciting and humbling all at the same time and he may need to sit down in a second to process. At least he didn’t miss anything, he’s grateful for that. He’s also grateful for his beautiful wife that seems to be taking all of this in complete stride. At least one of them is keeping it all together.

“Aaron?” 

“Huh?” Eloquent as usual.

“If you’re trying to squeeze the baby out through my hand you need to take Anatomy again.” Katelyn laughs.

“Oh shit!” he pulls away and loosens his death grip and trails soften fingers over hers instead. “Sorry” he says sheepishly. She threads hers finger through his again and brings him back in for a kiss.

“It’s ok baby, we’ve got this” she says, her breath warm against his lips.

Aaron’s not sure how he managed to get so lucky to deserve someone like Katelyn. 

“How are you so calm?” he asks, but she just smiles serenely up at him before a contraction takes over and he forces everything else away. 

It’s a long labour; the doctor’s aren’t concerned but the baby’s not in the right position, feet down, head up and we need to convince him to spin around they say. Aaron wants to scoff at that but Katelyn nods like it’s the most normal thing in the world. Aaron’s been a doctor long enough to learn when to sit back and take the advice of professionals. Child birth is not his field; he’s just as clueless as the people down in the waiting rooms. 

He sends one text to Nicky to tell him the baby’s coming. There’s an upside to his cousin not being able to keep his mouth shut. Aaron doesn’t have the time or brain capacity to message everyone else and so he lets Nicky do it for him. Renee, Matt and Dan are the first ones to message him after Nicky’s long and garbled reply filled with too many emoji’s. He doesn’t bother with responding but it’s nice to know they’re there. Kevin’s is short and succinct, Allison’s demands to be made Godmother and be first in line for holding. The most surprising one of all and a little unsettling is Neil. It’s just two words, but Aaron thinks ‘Good luck’ (as if he’s off to an Exy game) is not quite the appropriate response to his wife pushing out their first child, but it’ll do. There’s nothing from Andrew and he doesn’t expect there to be. Wymack calls him. 

“Hey Kid,” the low voice says like he’s still in college. “How you doing? Do you need anything?” Gruff and direct as ever, just like Wymack.

“No, we’re ok. Just taking a long time, baby wasn’t in the right position or something” 

“But everything’s good now?”

“Yeah, so far” Aaron leans back against the hospital wall; he lets out a breath he’s been holding in for a while now. 

“You’re doing ok Minyard, you’ve done a lot of good things and this is one of them. Make sure you look after her and give Katelyn my best would you.” 

“Uhh yes Coach” Aaron’s slightly touched. Wymack chuckles before hanging up. Aaron frowns at the dark phone in his hand, wonders at the fact that a single phone call from an old college coach could make him feel that little bit less like drowning. He puts it away for another day, Wymack told him to go look after his wife and he intends to do just that. 

****

Neil hates hospitals, Andrew doesn’t have an opinion. It serves a purpose and that’s it, there’s people and doctors. They come and they go. Some die and some don’t, the reasons don’t matter. But they are here today, along with the rest of their old team somewhere in this massive building and the reason makes his fingers itch for a cigarette. Neil’s already reaching into Andrew’s back pocket and pulling out a crumpled packet while Andrew considers the main entrance from the curb side. He lights two and passes one over silently for Andrew to smoke. Neil takes an occasional drag to keep his lit but other than the sound of burning tobacco everything else is left unsaid. Andrew prefers it that way, words don’t mean much in their world and only a handful really matter. It doesn’t bother him as much as it used to that Neil knows him too well. Both of them standing outside the hospital, quietly smoking. Neil probably needs a minute too. It’s not the fact that he has a three day old nephew now, or that the likelihood of that is even possible with the Minyard track record. But Aaron had sent him a message a few months ago, asking him to be here when the time came. A day later he typed out a single worded reply. 

_Yes._

It was the only one that mattered.

Neil’s talking at him, wondering if they can get Kevin to play a few scrims with them while they’re here. Andrew doesn’t know if there’s a decent enough court in this city for Kevin’s standards but he guesses they are going to find out.  
“Junkie” he says, but it’s more of an endearment than an insult at this point and it applies to Andrew now too. Because he knows as soon they leave here Andrew will take all three of them to the nearest Exy stadium. Neil flicks him a knowing look and Andrew plants a quick kiss to his lips before he can say anything. He steals Neil’s half burnt cigarette from his fingers and finishes it off for him, flicking both of them into the garden nearby.  
“Let’s go” Andrew says and leads the way into the hospital. 

Even with a larger private room it’s still crowded with nine of them and varying ‘congratulations’ and ‘It’s a boy’ balloons and bouquets. Andrew and Kevin claim the only two chairs and everyone else try to fit themselves comfortably around Katelyn’s bed and assorted hospital equipment. Aaron had met them all down in reception, telling them everything had gone well; yes we’re doing ok, thanks for flying in short notice. He’s using his Doctor/Patient voice and Andrew wonders mildly if he’s even aware or if it’s his way of dealing with the stress.

Allison gets the first hold, naturally. The rest of them have grown enough patience to wait. Two of them aren’t interested and Nicky’s too busy being excited to hold still long enough. Kevin’s next, he got over his awkwardness with children a year ago when his own daughter was born. He handles the baby with a familiarity the rest of them don’t possess and Andrew hasn’t seen Kevin without all his sharp edges and dark intensity in a long time. Matt, Dan and Nicky get their turns. Matt makes the kid look even smaller against his tall frame, Dan smiles and cries at the same time and Nicky finally settles long enough to get passed the tiny infant.

“Hello little guy, welcome to the family. We’re a bit dysfunctional but that’s ok, you’ll be in good hands” Nicky says misty eyed. He then promptly ruins the moment with over the top baby talk that even the newborn doesn’t appreciate.  
“Oh, ok ok, I’m sorry! Here Renee, you try.” he says over the wailing. Renee takes the crying baby from Nicky and rocks him gently, shushing in a quiet voice. He quiets enough for the rest of them to start up the mandatory questions of everyone’s life since last they saw each other. Renee talks quietly with Katelyn as she rocks. Andrew watches everything from his seat next to the window and Neil stands as far back as he can, looking at the infant like it might start exploding more bodily fluids. 

“So,” Renee says once the conversations die down enough to be clearly heard. “Have you guys picked out a name for this little one or are you still deciding?”

Aaron glances down at Katelyn before flicking his gaze over to his newborn son in Renee’s arms. He shifts his weight and opens his mouth only to close it again. Katelyn takes his hand. Andrew’s sharp eyes don’t miss the way Aaron’s avoiding looking at him. 

“God don’t tell me you’ve named him something horrible like Archibald or something?” Nicky says laughing. 

“Nicky!” Dan’s gaze is disproving.

“What? I mean whatever you choose is fine of course but you have imagine what th-”

“We named him after you,” Aaron says straightening. “Joseph Nicholas Minyard”

The entire room goes deathly quiet; It’s so completely left-field for the cousins that none of the former foxes quite know what to do. Nicky’s looking from Aaron to Andrew then back to Katelyn, mouth hanging open. Dan and Matt are exchanging concerned glances; Renee’s paused in her rocking. Kevin’s looking towards Andrew. 

Allison goes to break the silence but Nicky beats her to it.

“Y-you guys,” his voice wavering. “You really named your son, after _us?_ ” 

“Yes” Aaron says but he’s turning to face down Andrew. Whose head is tilted to the side like he might have misheard. 

This is not, this is something Andrew neither expected nor would’ve even considered from his brother. He’d seen something coming when Renee had asked the question but never this. There’s a complicated twist of things happening in his chest he’s not sure of and he stands to meet Aaron’s gaze. Life hasn’t been kind to them; their relationship messy from the start and neither of them doing much to make it any easier. Betsy, time, careers and lives apart had helped close the gap and extinguish the anger but Andrew could count on his fingers the amount of times they had a proper conversation or spent time together. Yet here they are, standing opposite each other in a hospital room surrounded by people they care about and a three day old baby with Andrew and Nicky’s name. Something indefinable in Aaron’s eyes that Andrew’s slowly matching. 

Andrew thinks he might just be ok with that.

“You are stupid” he says to Aaron and then for reasons completely unknown to him, Andrew holds out his hands to Renee in demand for the tiny human. She’s smiling at him with her usual serene expression but he only has eyes for the baby currently being placed into his arms. He’s picked up on the tensions from the room and started to cry again but quiets almost instantly against Andrew’s chest and stares up at him with big, wide eyes.  
The room dissolves into chaos after that, Nicky’s crying and laughing reaching out to Katelyn’s offered hug. Aaron takes over Andrew’s chair head in his hands, Dan and Allison are talking over one another and grinning like fools, Matt’s asking if Andrew even knows how to hold a baby. Kevin looks entirely too smug. 

Andrews not paying them any attention, he’s starring down at this kid whose tiny fingers are opening and closing against his shirt. Making soft, gurgling noises up at him. He has a light amount of blond hair. In that moment he promises then and there that Joseph Nicholas Minyard will never know a life, a childhood that he and Aaron had known. He would make damn sure of that and Andrew _always_ keeps his promises. 

“Joseph Nicholas Minyard” Nicky whispers, he turns to Katelyn with an arm still around her shoulders. “Is that really ok?”

“Of course, that’s why we choose it” 

“Well it’s not like we can change it now. It’s on the birth certificate.” Aaron says between his fingers. 

“It’s perfect Aaron” Dan says with a grin.

Andrew kind of has to agree.

Neil steps up quietly behind him to peer over his shoulder, fingers tight at his hip and Andrew welcomes the contact. He considers the baby for a while as Nicky, seeing them, tries desperately to untangle his phone from his coat somewhere across the room. 

Neil’s voice is soft at Andrews’s ear, “He has your eyes.” 

If Andrews’s arms tighten slightly around the bundle in his hold at that then no ones the wiser but him. Neil stays at his shoulder a few moments more before turning to find Kevin for coffee. Their voices follow them down the hallway already disputing Exy stats for the upcoming season. Andrew keeps Joseph a while longer before he announces in the only way a baby knows that it’s feeding time. He places him back in Renee’s care and goes outside to smoke. 

****

Later, when everyone’s said their goodbyes and gone back to their respective hotels, Aaron finds himself in front of a waiting room coffee machine on his way back inside. He considers the 70’s colour styed cups that have probably been here since that time as well. Aarons fills a large cup anyway and makes a face at the taste, it’s horrible but coffee is coffee. The hospital is quiet this time of night and it’s fairly easy to get back to Katelyn’s room. He left her alone with Joseph while he walked his old teammates out, and waved them off as quickly as he could. He loved them, a fact he’d stopped pretending about only recently, but he was tired and today had been one hell of a day. He walks in on a scene he’s entirely unprepared for and almost loses his coffee at the door. A guilty spike of panic hits him before he can squash it. 

“They’re fine” Andrew says without looking up. He’s sitting crossed legged on one of the chairs gazing down at the bundle in his lap, the softest expression Aaron’s ever seen him wear. Katelyn’s snoring softly from her bed completely oblivious to the world. Aaron desperately wants to know the how’s and why’s of what happened here but isn’t stupid enough to ask. He crosses the room instead. When he’s close enough Andrew motions for Aaron to take Joseph from him and they manage to hand off sleeping baby for coffee. For someone who’s probably never held a baby in his life, Andrew is surprisingly good at the whole thing. Aaron concentrates hard on remembering not to drop his newborn son. This is more than he could have hoped for and the most Andrews given him in years. It’s terribly disconcerting on his already sleep-deprived brain. 

“It’s shit,” Aaron says, in lieu of anything else to say. Nodding at the horribly pattern cup that used to be his. “The coffee” 

Andrew just shrugs uncaring and drinks it anyway. Aaron settles himself in the chair beside his brother, careful not to wake his tiny human cradled against his chest. He’d hate to wake either Joseph or Katelyn, they’d all had a long day. They sit there in the dark hospital room in silence, Andrew slowly making his way through Aaron’s coffee. Aaron trying to process everything that had happened in his life in only a handful of days. It’s far from a comfortable silence; they’re still a long way from that but it’s not unpleasant either. He considers it a win. 

“Don’t expect Christmas or birthdays” Andrew finally says. 

“Obviously”

Neil comes looking for Andrew, Kevin’s close behind him with barely contained impatience. Nothing’s really changed there and it’s somehow comforting and nostalgic. A nurse isn’t far after them to check on Katelyn and take Joseph back to the nursey for the night. Aaron waves them off with a few words and Andrew leads the three of them out of the room without a goodbye or backward glance. For once Aaron isn’t annoyed about the silent dismal from his brother; instead he’s cautiously hopeful for the first time. That they might finally be able to mend the last few broken pieces and make family mean something more to them again than just a word.


End file.
